


baby you're wishing you could die with the moon, but i'd miss you

by lilacpollen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Past Child Abuse, Slow Burn, a little life au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:09:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29973711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacpollen/pseuds/lilacpollen
Summary: “To our apartment.” Sirius said, in a rush of fondness and excitement. He held up his can of cider, and Remus knocked his against it.“To the apartment.” He agreed, his small smile still on his face.Sirius felt giddy with delight. He took a long sip from the can and leaned forward- wrapping an arm around Remus’s shoulder. “I don’t care if it’s ugly. It’s all ours and I love it.”“Me too.” Remus agreed, his grin stretching across his faceThey sat that way for a long time, drinking and laughing until the sun faded and night crept in through the windows.OR: a very loose a little life AU, following Remus & Sirius primarily. Sirius and Remus are friends who met in University, and are now moving into an apartment together. Sirius is an artist, Remus is a law student and part-time baker. Proximity brings a new level of understanding as Remus struggles to recover from his broken childhood, and Sirius struggles to make it in the art world. They fall in love. (Obviously.)
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> this work brought to you by me reading all the young dudes and listening to please don't die by father john misty a million times. I haven't actually read hp in years so this is essentially ATYD fic 🤪 
> 
> when i say loose a little life AU I mean LOOSE. if you've read the book you'll see that. the first few chapters follow it pretty closely, but i'm planning to branch off and take it in a different direction, and i've shuffled around the roles of a few characters. (i.e moving the setting to london, sirius being a weird willem/jb combo in being an artist & having part of this be about his art career but being the love interest to remus, who is our jude.) i've also cut out all sexual assault and switched around remus's past a bit so it doesn't fit jude's perfectly. so, as i said, very loose. not intended to be an accurate representation of a little life. some scenes i'm taking and working off of, most i'm leaving so this is fine to read if you haven't read a little life. in fact ENCOURAGED to read either way. 
> 
> disclaimer i'm american so if my britishisms are bad <3 i'm sorry 
> 
> to all the young dudes tiktok i just want to say this is all your fault <3
> 
> selkiecarlow on tiktok  
> selkielore on tumblr  
> my spotify playlist for this fic: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2vm1IvO6betgtpLQET7lLP?si=sYuyH89ERAqjbjGwLAPIKA

_Oh, we're so disarming, darling, everything we did believe_   
_Is diving, diving, diving, diving off the balcony_

\-- apartment story, the national

They visited five different apartments that day before they found one that was reasonably priced, well located enough, and not too run down for them to live in. Sirius Black stood with his hands in his pockets, peering into the bedroom at apartment number five. It was small, with wooden floors and a window to the east through which greyish London light streamed in. It would only be big enough for two twin sized beds and a narrow walking area between, which suited Sirius just fine. 

He turned to look at his best friend, Remus Lupin, to find the other young man nodding at the renting agent as she talked. His blue eyes were bright, and he shot Sirius a shy grin over his shoulder. Sirius grinned back. It certainly wasn’t the nicest apartment they’d visited- and it might be the worst place Sirius had ever lived if they snagged it- but it cut the right balance between affordable and comfortable. There was a bathroom and a small kitchen- both had working faucets, though the water pressure wasn’t good. 

“So,” The agent continued. “What do you boys think?” 

Remus looked over to Sirius expectantly, who grinned. “It’s perfect. We’ll take it.” 

It was only later, in the apartment building’s leasing office that they discovered they wouldn’t allow Remus and Sirius to rent. 

“Why not?” Remus asked. His face was getting pinched with impatience, and he was leaning more heavily on his right leg. His injury must have been bothering him, Sirius thought. 

“Look,” The agent said, her expression tight. “You don’t have six months rent between the two of you, and you don’t have anything in savings.” She had checked their credit scores and their bank accounts and finally realized there was something off about two men in their 20’s who weren't a couple trying to rent a boring, but still expensive, one-bedroom apartment in Whitechapel. 

“Do you have anyone who can sign on as a guarantor? A boss? Your parents?” 

“My parents are dead.” Said Remus, his voice bleak, which was enough to shut anyone up. 

They left soon after, when the agent had told them to lower their expectations and look elsewhere. 

“Who wants to live in Whitechapel anyway?” Sirius asked, kicking a stretch of well-manicured grass running against the sidewalk as they walked to the tube. 

Sensibly, Remus replied. “Well, we have to live somewhere. I can’t camp out with James’s parents forever.” 

Sirius scoffed. They were on their way to meet up for lunch with James and Peter. “The Potter’s love you, Moony.” 

“They won’t if I stay in their guest room too much longer.” Remus teased, giving a crooked smile. 

* * *

They ate lunch at a cheap, noisy ramen shop near chinatown overflowing with customers. It didn’t take long for James and Peter to arrive. It was their usual haunt, as it provided large meals for a cheap fee, which suited all members of their little party. James would always order two baskets of karaage and pay for them without asking and Remus would pick at them until the other boys gave up and passed the basket over. At that point, he would always scarf down the chicken nuggets in a matter of minutes and then wipe his mouth politely when he'd finished, like he hadn't inhaled a basket of chicken in two minutes flat. 

James got their usual for the table and then set about dowsing his bowl with a hefty serving of extra soy sauce. 

"Any luck on the apartment search?" 

Sirius shook his head glumly. "No one's taking us because of our non-existent credit score." 

"Well that hardly seems right." Said Peter, frowning. He still lived with his parents in a nice (if slightly old and dilapidated) townhouse in Notting Hill. Sirius would have moved in with James if he wasn't living in a sprawling, shambling apartment with a cohort of other aspiring actors who sat constantly in the living room, running lines. It almost annoyed him about James- he could have had his own apartment, much nicer than the ones he and Remus were looking at- but he chose to live in squalor to be closer to others. Currently, Remus was the one living with James's parents, forty minutes outside of London. It was a situation he desperately wanted to escape both because he needed a quicker commute to law school and because he was intensely embarrassed to be living with the Potters. Sirius knew it wasn't that he didn't like them. It was just that Remus couldn't stand charity or help of any kind, from anyone. Sirius hardly knew why, even though he'd known Remus for five years now, but help seemed to chafe at him like a too-tight collar. 

It made sense then, that Sirius and Remus were planning to move in together. They'd been roommates throughout all four years of university, and it had suited them well. Remus was intensely private and not likely to move in with a stranger and Sirius, having been cut off from the Black family inheritance, couldn't afford to live alone in London. 

Peter looked up from his ramen, a sudden light in his eyes. "Wait! Lads, I forgot to tell you all about it. My cousin Enid's best friend is moving out of her flat and in with her new boyfriend. She was renting it from her aunt, who needs someone new to rent the place. " 

Remus looked over to Sirius, his eyebrows raised expectantly. 

Peter continued excitedly. "It's a shithole in Hackney, but it's cheap and it has an elevator." 

The mention of the elevator was clearly for Remus's benefit. He had a bad injury on his hip that made it difficult for him to walk sometimes, especially up long flights of stairs. Most of the places they looked at (and had been subsequently rejected from) had elevators they examined for this exact reason. It drove their price range up to the point that it was nearly impossible to find anywhere to stay. This revelation from Peter was exactly what they needed- a personal in.

This was how they ended up on Well street in Hackney on a rainy Tuesday afternoon with Peter, who was anxiously checking his watch. He had a meeting at his architecture firm at 3:00, and it was 2:15 by the time Enid's friend, a snub nosed girl named Emily- met them in the lobby of the building. 

"Hiya," She said cheerily. "You'll be Sirius and Remus, then?" She had a cigarette tucked behind her ear and wore a pair of doc martens, which made Sirius like her instantly. 

"Right you are." Sirius said, reaching out to shake her hand. He gestured to Remus at his side. "This is Remus, and you already know Peter, who's late to a meeting." He added this last part with an amiable eye-roll. 

"Yes, sorry Emily." Peter said quickly, looking at his watch. "I've got to run." To Remus and Sirius, he gave a quick thumbs up and said: "Hope the tour goes well, boys." 

He left them quickly, running out into the rainy street towards the tube station. Remus gave Sirius a small, wry smile and Sirius found his mouth quirking. Pete could be anxious and flighty at the best of times, and it never failed to amuse Sirius when he was so characteristically worried over something that would most certainly be fine. It wasn't like he was going to lose his job for being late _once_. 

"So," Emily said, getting right down to business. "Want to see the place?"

"Yes please." Remus said, giving a polite smile. One of the scars across his face stretched garishly, and Sirius saw Emily flinch- just a little. 

"We'd like to see the elevator, too." He gave his most charming smile, the one he knew made girls fall all over him. Hopefully it would be enough to get the attention off poor Moony for even a moment. 

"Sure." Emily said gamely, leading them across the lobby, which was painted a shiny, shit brown with tan linoleum floors. She pressed a button and the creaky elevator rose up from the basement, sputtering and whirring all the while. 

"Is it safe?" Remus asked, more curious than concerned. 

Emily shrugged. "It breaks down sometimes, but not often. No one's ever gotten stuck in it." 

That seemed to be good enough for Remus, because he went in through the dull metal doors without so much as a pause, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Sirius and Emily followed in quickly behind. 

The apartment was on the fourth floor, and it was decidedly plain. The living room and kitchen were squashed together in one small area, with a shabby breakfast nook dividing the space. The floors were wood with gapping in between the boards, but they were clean. The walls were painted an ugly shade of greenish-yellow and discolored in places where picture frames had once hung. The two windows in the living room faced out to another building. 

Remus went ahead to check the bedroom while Sirius took the bathroom, and Emily waited anxiously, sitting at the breakfast nook and fiddling with her cigarette like she was dying for one. The bathroom was clean enough and when Sirius turned on the faucet the water ran just fine. It had better pressure than the last place they'd visited. 

Remus poked his head in. There were two doors in the bathroom- one that lead to the bedroom, and one to the living room. It was altogether a rather spartan set up, but Sirius didn't mind. He'd been getting away with sleeping on the floor at his studio for a few weeks now, but he didn't want to let it go on much longer. He was anxious to move in somewhere real as soon as possible. 

"What do you think?" Remus said quietly, so Emily couldn't overhear them. 

"I like it so far." Sirius replied, keeping his voice low. "What about the bedroom?" 

Remus shrugged. "It's small, but it's not bad. They've got two twin beds in there already. Enough room for a dresser, if we want it." 

"Sounds perfect." Sirius grinned. He took the time to check out the bedroom himself, but Remus's assessment was clinical and accurate. He couldn't find anything wrong with the room, other than the fact that it was painted the same horrid color as the living room-slash-kitchen. 

He came grinning into the living room, where Emily straightened up at his entrance, looking up from her phone. "Any thoughts?" She asked. 

"It's great." Sirius said. "Just what we're looking for." He exchanged a look of confirmation with Remus, who was coming out of the bathroom after his own round of inspection. Remus smiled back instantly. 

"I can throw in the beds," Emily offered. " If you need something to sweeten the deal. My boyfriend and I bought a new one." 

"That's perfect." Remus said, rather quickly. He was just as worried about procuring furniture for the apartment as the apartment itself. "We'll take it." 

"Cheers, then!" Emily grinned, and after that it was all over rather quickly. Remus and Sirius had somewhere to live, Emily had the tenant for her aunt, and they ended up signing the papers that afternoon. They were to move in later that week.

* * *

It was a perfect autumn day when they moved in - the sun buttery and warm on the sidewalk and spilling through their small windows. James and Peter came to help, and the girls- all friends of Remus's from college. Lily, Marlene, and Mary. This made James nearly catatonic, as he'd had a crush on Lily since the day they met in first year. He'd spent the next four years making a fool out of himself for her, and still had yet to gain her attention in any kind of meaningful way. Sirius found it at once endearing and annoying. He loved James- he wanted him to be happy. But he'd been friends with James since primary school, long before girls or love were ever a concern, and he could admit to himself that he was a bit jealous of the attention James lavished upon Lily. 

Sirius, himself, had dated Mary for a year in college but that was different. Sirius, ironic to his name, had never managed to get serious about anyone he dated. Probably because he'd never dated anyone he truly loved. How could he possibly love anyone more than his dearest friends? More than James, or Remus? How could any other kind of love be stronger or purer than that born of friendship? 

That September afternoon, his chest seemed full of it as he watched his friends. He took turns with James and Peter and Mary doing runs of boxes from the truck. The elevator was broken that day, so they let Remus take the stairs and stay in the apartment, directing traffic and unpacking as they went to fill the apartment with furniture, and records, and piles and piles of books. Marlene and Lily helped him put together the cheap, ikea dresser they'd bought and slid it in the meager space between their two twin beds to act as dresser and nightstand both. Sirius didn't mind how small the space was, and when he got a chance to catch Remus's eye, standing in the landing with the door to the apartment wide open, he grinned. 

Remus grinned back, wide and easy, his scar stretching across his face. Sirius thought it made him look rather roguish and charming, like a story-book hero even though Remus was the most hard-working and bookish of all of them. 

"Alright?" Sirius asked, his voice low. Remus hated anyone asking after him and as Sirius expected, he waved it off, his smile disappearing. 

"I've got Lily and Marlene to help me. It's no problem." 

"It looks great." Sirius leaned around the doorjamb to peer into their ugly little apartment. Lily and Marlene were sitting on the hastily constructed futon couch, unwrapping boxes of china to put away in their tiny kitchen. He clapped Remus on the shoulder gently. "Who knew you were an interior decorator, Moony?" 

"Oh, piss off." Remus scoffed, his expression lifting slightly. His mouth turned up at one corner "It looks like a shithole." 

"It is a shithole." Sirius said cheerily. "But it's _our_ shithole." 

Indeed, as Sirius walked down to get another round of boxes from the truck, he passed Peter, who was whispering furiously and far too loudly to James. 

"The place is worse than Enid said. I didn't think they'd _really_ take it. I mean, it looks like mold is about to start growing from the ceiling!" 

Sirius knew Peter didn't mean anything by it, but it annoyed him. It pricked like a thorn in his side. He heard James whispering back. 

"Don't be mean, Pete. It's not _that_ bad." 

He was pleased by James's unwavering loyalty, but really, it did look like mold was going to start sprouting in a corner somewhere. Sirius didn't mind, really. It was better than sleeping on the floor of his studio, waking up whenever another sculptor or painter came in the middle of the night to work. He was lucky no one had reported him to the landlord for living there - even if it was only temporary. The studio space wasn't meant to be used for personal living and he could get kicked out if anyone mouthed off. Luckily, it seemed many of the artists held a mutual dislike of their landlord, and no one told him anything if they could help it. 

Sirius was happy just to have his own living space, even if it meant trying to balance rent for the apartment and his studio. It didn't matter what his friends thought, even his dearest ones. He was making a place that was all his own, and Remus's, and that was all that really mattered. They had somewhere to live. They had somewhere to share, no matter how small and rotten it was. 

* * *

When everyone left - Sirius and Remus had ordered Pizza and procured cans of cider for everyone to share as payment for their help in the move- the apartment was still and quiet. There were still piles of packed boxes, and piles of empty ones sitting around in oceanic drifts of cardboard. The evening light was streaming in thinly through their two dirty windows, turning the walls of the apartment to gold. 

Sirius grinned at Remus, unable to help himself. Remus smiled back. 

“To our apartment.” Sirius said, in a rush of fondness and excitement. He held up his can of cider, and Remus knocked his against it. 

“To the apartment.” He agreed, his small smile still on his face. 

Sirius felt giddy with delight. He took a long sip from the can and leaned forward- wrapping an arm around Remus’s shoulder. “I don’t care if it’s ugly. It’s all ours and I love it.” 

“Me too.” Remus agreed, his grin stretching across his face 

They sat that way for a long time, drinking and laughing until the sun faded and night crept in through the windows.


	2. chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> to paint his friends- to turn them into art- was something new entirely. It was a focus on the beautiful, intricate mundanities of everyday life. What made a person the person they were, what made a friendship a friendship. It was somehow more personal and more intimate than anything else he'd ever attempted before. It made him vulnerable because it showed what he loved the most. To start with a painting of Remus, the dearest and most beautiful of all of them, was bigger than Sirius could truly say or even think.

Sirius liked to walk to his studio in the evenings. He always got off of work - front desk at a posh art gallery in Soho, answering calls and making appointments for private showings- just as the sun was going down, washing London in those lovely sunset tones of orange and gold. That light turned everything lovely. Sirius thought that anything could be beautiful in the right light, and those walks from the gallery on Regent street to his little shared studio a few blocks away proved him right. He felt more kindly to strangers when that warm, golden light rained down on them all. Everyone looked bright and full of possibility. The tourists bustling around, the shoppers, the workers shuffling out of their long retail shifts with smudged makeup and wrinkled clothing. 

His studio was in a loft over a gentrified green juice place and split between at least six other artists at any given moment. The only two who had been at it as long as Sirius were another oil painter, a woman named Shanna, and a mixed media artist named Damien who was currently constructing an art book made of gold leaf and grass clippings from Kensington gardens. Shanna's work tended towards the fantastical - sprawling 8 x 8 foot scenes of animals and witchy women in beautiful, unearthly forests. She got most of her money from selling smaller-scale pieces on instagram. Damien was a mystery. Much of his work was experimental, and at the moment he was working on nature informed pieces. He'd tufted a rug into the pattern of a hexagon only using the natural dye he could get from a butterfly bush. The rug turned out disappointingly brown, in Sirius's limited opinion. 

Sirius's own work was even more of a mystery, even to himself. He hadn't quite been able to find his niche. He loved oil painting fiercely, even as he felt that it was too cliche, too well worn as an artist's medium. He'd tried non-traditional sculpture for a while, but it didn't work out. He'd spent a whole summer shaping amorphous blobs out of styrofoam, and then walking various parks and squares with a plastic bag and gloves, picking up every pigeon feather he could find and obsessively gluing them to his forms until they turned into strange, spiraling feathery forms that smelled faintly of garbage. They probably would have been impressive if he'd found anything to use but scavenged pigeon feathers. 

As it was, Sirius was back to oil painting for the time being. He'd had an idea brewing in his head for a while now, but he'd had to get creative about it, and now it was starting to come into its true form. It all started when they were unpacking the apartment - Sirius had found an old photo of Remus, right at the beginning of their University days. 

Remus, at the time, was thinner and rangier. He had a wary, reticent look about him that made strangers stop and stare, and a mysterious limp he couldn't seem to shake. He didn't talk much - at least not to strangers. It had taken almost the entire first month just for Remus to start talking to Sirius and James! In the photo, he stood uncomfortably next to the cracked-open window of their first ever dorm room smoking a cigarette. He was wearing an oversized fisherman's sweater, looking at the camera like it was a foreign object. He regarded it with the same type of wary hesitancy that he'd regarded everything in those days, a sort of soft, haunted look in his eyes. 

He was also, of course, unbelievably wonderful to look at. He had that scar over his nose and his cheek, like one long, thin starburst. His brown hair was mussed and disorderly, and his eyes were a strange, lovely shade of blue that Sirius could never manage to capture quite right with his paints. They seemed to stare out of his face like bolts of lightning or ice. 

When Sirius had first met him, he was tanned and his hair had been shaved close to his head. He later learned that this was because all the boys in the group home were made to shave their heads, to stop an outbreak of lice that summer before Uni. At the time he didn't know this, though. He only saw Remus for the first time, standing in their little room wearing clothes that were all too big for him with nothing in the world but a backpack and a shopping bag with clothes spilling out of it. 

Sirius had never pitied him. His parents were paying for Uni, but they wanted nothing to do with him and made it very clear that he was cut off as soon as he finished school. He'd felt shabby and alone, too, though perhaps in a different way than Remus. 

"I think we're meant to be roommates." Sirius had said then, looking down at the sheet in his hand and squinting at the tiny name printed there. "Are you Remus Lupin?"

Remus only nodded, staring in that wary, skittish way he used to. It was uncomfortable. 

Sirius gave him a smile anyway. "I'm Sirius Black." And that had been the beginning, slow and small as it was. 

Now, in his studio, Sirius was scrutinizing his sketch, trying to get it just right. He adjusted the shape of one eye with a pencil, and then looked at the photo of Remus to be sure he was getting it right. He was almost nervous to start this painting. It was the beginning of a new project, a new era of his work and he had the strangest feeling that this time it could be important. It could really break out into the world. He had decided to paint his friends- had taken to carrying a clunky old DSLR around with him everywhere and snapping pictures while they weren't paying attention. He meant to paint all the good ones he got. All his past works had been an attempt to explore a sense of himself, or otherwise taking on heavy, pretentious themes because he'd thought that was what art was meant to be about. 

But to paint his friends- to turn them into art- was something new entirely. It was a focus on the beautiful, intricate mundanities of everyday life. What made a person the person they were, what made a friendship a friendship. It was somehow more personal and more intimate than anything else he'd ever attempted before. It made him vulnerable because it showed what he loved the most. To start with a painting of Remus, the dearest and most beautiful of all of them, was bigger than Sirius could truly say or even think. He could only focus on the canvas before him, and his palette laid out on the table. 

He sat on the stool in front of his easel, and began to paint. 

* * *

Winter came nipping at his heels sooner than Sirius expected. When you were as young and as busy as he was, it was easy to lose track of time. The months seemed to blur together since he'd moved in with Remus. They were both busy. Remus spent most of his nights doing homework spread around the kitchen table and on weekends he left quietly before the sun rose to go to his job at a fancy french bakery in Covent Garden. He'd stumble out of bed at three in the morning and Sirius would pretend he hadn't been woken up, hadn't heard the water running while he brushed his teeth or the whistling when he put the kettle on for tea. Remus would always return sometime after noon, covered in flour and bearing whatever extras and discards he could smuggle home from work. 

They would sit on the couch eating misshapen kouign amann or canele, not caring when they got crumbs all over the cushions. Sirius felt very lucky to live with Remus, who was always bringing home delicious treats or else making them himself. He was a wonderful baker, and a decent cook as well. God only knew where he'd learned, he was so quiet about his history, but Sirius was happy to eat the food. James and Peter had taken to appearing around the apartment on Sunday afternoons, too, when Remus would be likely to bring home a good spoil from work. No matter how tired he was when he got home, if he saw the three of them sitting on the couch, Remus would put on a pot of tea and expertly divide the pastries into even slices for each member of their little party. 

Then he would drink tea himself and chat with them until he got so tired he began to fall asleep at the table, at which point Sirius would kick him under the table until he woke up, glaring, and shambled off to their bedroom. 

This particular Sunday afternoon, they had given Remus the couch. Sirius sat at the kitchen table with James and Peter, a plate with an olive baguette and butter sat in the middle of the table. They were all nursing espressos - Sirius had a Moka pot he used religiously- even Remus had a cup in hand, though he looked half asleep as he tried to read a book on the couch. There was flour in his hair. No one bothered to point it out. 

"We should do New Years here." James said. "Have a little party." They had been discussing the holidays, what they were doing, when they were working. Peter was doing Christmas with his family- they were going on vacation to France. Sirius and Remus had both been invited to Christmas dinner with the Potters at their St. Ives cottage, which they accepted gratefully, but New Years was an empty blip on the calendar for all of them. 

"Here?" Remus asked, coming awake and peering at them from his position on the couch. There was something in his disheveled manner that made Sirius want to come sit next to him, to wrap an arm around his shoulder and settle into the couch. 

"Well we can't do it at mine." James said diplomatically. "Or Peter's- no offense mate, I bet your parents would love to host a bunch of drunk twenty-somethings for the holiday. Last year you all said we wanted to do something together." He continued, as if they needed to be wheedled into throwing a party. Sirius certainly didn't need to be convinced. Last New Years, they'd all been dreadfully separated. James was in a play that was running, Peter was with his parents, Remus was with James's parents - and Sirius was at some horrible party he'd been invited to and hadn't been able to convince the others to come to without James.

The idea of a New Year's party all together, even in their tiny, unimpressive apartment, sounded much better than the sad alternative of staying in with their parents. Or in his and Remus's case, playing two-man card games until they got too tired to stay up any longer. 

"A party sounds great." Sirius grinned, looking over at Remus for confirmation. He only shrugged, nodding in the sort of way that meant: _if it makes everyone happy._ "Oh come on." Sirius stood and crossed the room, plopping himself down next to Remus on the couch. He knocked their shoulders together. "Show some enthusiasm, Moony! It's the holidays!" 

Remus rolled his eyes, smiling, and shoved Sirius away. "You know I don't like crowds." 

"It'll be a small party." Sirius told him. "We can't fit more than 25 people in here anyway." 

"You could fit forty if they squeezed." James said, smiling cheekily. 

"I get to pick the music." Remus shot back, a slow smile creeping over his face. "If we're having a party I get to pick the music." 

Peter groaned, and Sirius pumped his fist "Yes, Moony!" 

Remus rolled his eyes again, this time looking much happier, and took a sip of his coffee- now gone cold. 

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first of about 3 chapters i have pre-written. going to continue to write and only post a chapter once i've finished the next one. each chapter is going to be around 2k words. hope you guys enjoy!


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